[Android] Turn your life into an RPG game with HabitRPG

I’m an RPG lover through and through. So naturally, when I heard about an Android app that gamifies your life through an RPG-like leveling system, you better believe I was all over it. HabitRPG is an app that allows you to gamify various tasks and accomplishments that you perform on a daily basis. Keep in mind, it’s not designed to be life-changing, it’s just supposed to add a little fun to the mix.

What is it and what does it do

Main Functionality

The concept of HabitRPG is remarkably simple, you enter in daily tasks and accomplishments and you earn experience for doing so. I’m not talking about real world experience, instead I’m actually talking about RPG type XP. You can also earn gold to purchase armor, weapons and even rewards. It’s actually a pretty unique way to turn your life into a sort of video game.

Pros

Make your life a little more fun and entertaining by turning it into an RPG-life game of sorts

You can level your character by collection experience, and purchase equipment like weapons and armor

You earn the experience and gold for rewards by completing self-appointed tasks and goals

Highly customizable and responsive

Cons

Uses 77MB of RAM while running, and just in case you don’t already know that’s a lot

The mobile version is missing some of the best features of the web portal, but the developers promise more to come

No widget support (sad face)

Discussion

HabitRPG uses the Android Holo theme complete with a pop-out side-menu. The design is very minimal, in fact one could say it’s unappealing.

Basically it works just like a video game. You have a sprite that you can outfit with armor, weapons and more. That sprite, or character represents a digital version of yourself. As you progress you earn experience to level up, and you earn gold to spend on various equipment and activities. The gold is actually spent on what is dubbed “rewards”. Only the geekiest would find pleasure in creating their own rewards, but that’s exactly how this app works. Aside from the equipment and customization items you can purchase for your sprite, you choose your rewards entirely. It can be one episode of Game of Thrones or your favorite TV show. It can be an hour alone to play video games. It can even be a special treat that you’ve been craving. The general idea is to complete your daily tasks and assignments in order to get your rewards- kind of like when your Mom used to keep your dessert out of reach until you finished your veggies.

To earn all this experience and gold, you need to complete various tasks which you set for yourself. Those tasks are separated into three different types: habits, dailies and to-dos.

Habits are activities that you perform continuously, and sometimes in multiple quantities all at once. They can be programmed to add points, subtract them or even offer a choice between both depending on their impact. For example, taking the stairs would be a habit. If you actually take the stairs throughout your day you would press the plus button to add points. Adversely if you take the elevator you would press the subtract button to remove points.

Dailies are activities that you will perform once per day. For example, if you make it a point to read for 45 minutes every day or do 15 minutes of exercise. Once completed they add both experience and gold to your character, however if you miss a daily activity it can hurt you. That means your HP or health (in game terms) is depleted.

To-dos are activities that you will only complete one time, and that’s it. They can be things like dropping off a package at the post office, going grocery shopping or even giving Mom a call.

For everything that you complete you earn both experience and gold. The HabitRPG app is directly linked to a web portal which has a lot more features like pets. You can also designate the difficulty of a task or activity, which allows you to earn more gold and experience for completing it. Unfortunately, that option has not yet been added to the Android app. The developers promise that a lot more features will be coming. Personally, I’m looking forward to the option to acquire pets.

Conclusion and download link

HabitRPG is a pretty unique app for Android that allows you to gamify (I hate that word) your life. It’s not supposed to be a life-changer of sorts nor is anyone trying to suggest that you should live your life in a fantasy. It’s strictly for fun and entertainment. You can level up your character, and equip your sprite with new weapons, armor and more. As you complete self-appointed tasks and goals you earn experience and gold. The gold can be spent on rewards, which you also set for yourself. The app is actually based off of a web application with the same name, which happens to include a lot more features. Over time, the developers will bring some of those features to the mobile version. For now, it’s entirely functional and a lot of fun if you’re into this kind of thing.

Subscribe to dotTech to never miss an article again!

About Briley Kenney

Briley is a tech/gaming journalist, and electronic gadget enthusiast. Briley writes for several online publications including Android Headlines, Blackberry Rocks, The Tech Labs and of course dotTech. His most recent project involved working on a turn based RPG called Tales of Illyria, which is now available in Google Play!